Just Lying to Myself

by Andrew B on Jan 19, 2009 11:01 AM EST Comment 9 comments

Having now driven the Eagles Bandwagon off a cliff, let me know look back and criticize myself for not being more realistic about the trends against the Eagles in this game.

Trend 1) Eagles in NFC Championship are now 1-4.

Trend 2) Eagles never won more than three games in a row this season. Cowboys, Vikings, Giants wins = Loss to Cardinals.

Trend 3) The Cardinals scored 31, 41, 30, 29, 29, 34, 14, 34, and 30 points at home this season before hanging 32 on the Eagles. Should we really have been surprised that the 8 of 9 side held?

Trend 4) The Cardinals allowed 10, 17. 24, 24, 37, 10, 35, 21 and 24 points at home this season before allowing 25 by the Eagles. Should we really have been surprised that the 7 of 9 side held?

Trend 5) The Cardinals were 8-2 at home this season. The Eagles were 5-5-1 on the road.

Trend 6) The Eagles scored 37, 20, 40, 26, 13, 7, 20, 3, 26, 23 points on the road before scoring 25 at Arizona. Should we really have been surprised that the 2-8 side held?

Trend 7) Teams that knock off the Super Bowl Champs in the playoffs are 3-14 the next week (all 3 wins were in the Super Bowl itself - so no team has ever beaten then Champs before the Conference Championship and then won to go on to the Super Bowl). 1971, Dolphins beat the Colts then lose to the Cowboys the next week. 1972, Redskins beat the Cowboys then lose to the Dolphins the next week. 1974, Raiders beat the Dolphins then lose to the Steelers the next week. 1976, Raiders beat the Steelers then win the Super Bowl the next week. 1977, Broncos beat the Raiders then lose to the Cowboys the next week. 1984, Seahawks beat the Raiders then lose to the Dolphins the next week. 1985, Giants beat the 49ers then lose to the Bears the next week. 1986, Redskins beat the Bears then lose to the Giants the next week. 1990, Giants beat the 49ers then win the Super Bowl the next week. 1992, 49ers beat the Redskins then lose to the Cowboys the next week. 1994, 49ers beat the Cowboys then win the Super Bowl the next week. 1996, Panthers beat the Cowboys then lose to the Packers the next week. 2000, Saints beat Rams, then lose to Vikings next week. 2001, Steelers beat the Ravens then lose to the Patriots next week. 2005, Broncos beat the Patriots then lose to the Steelers next week. 2007, Chargers beat the Colts then lose to the Patriots the next week. 2008, Eagles beat the Giants then lose to the Cardinals the next week.

Mark Lawrence brough up a lot of this on Howard Eskin's show on Friday evening and an even more dreadful stat about the Eagles being the favorite going against an 0-10 trend, and left me with a sense of foreboding all weekend. Vegas and the Books laughed all the way to the bank on this game.

There was only one shocking trend broken in this game. The Eagles had allowed 41, 24, 26, 7, 13, 36, 14, 10, 14, 11 points on the road. The 2-8 side won and the 8-2 side couldn't hold.

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I wish I could rec this 1 million times.

PLAYOFFS?!

by SSreporters on Jan 19, 2009 1:52 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I can tell you one thing: I think this game has a different outcome in Philly. Kurt Warners arm is worse than Eli’s in the wind…and the wind does not effect Donavon enough to make a huge difference. It was 25 degrees in Philly on Sunday.

by Clyde Simmons on Jan 19, 2009 1:52 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

And I still think Philly should have gotten the home game for having a better record. Playoff seeding and homefield advantage is BS.

by Clyde Simmons on Jan 19, 2009 1:53 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

The Eagles are 1-2 in NFC Championship home games.

PLAYOFFS?!

by SSreporters on Jan 19, 2009 2:05 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

we woulda beat them at home..

by Manoovi on Jan 19, 2009 5:12 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

come on

nobody’s arm is worse in the wind than Eli’s in the wind. ::bangs head on desk while praying the new Giants stadium will magically grow a dome::

But I agree, if this game had been played in Philly, I think the Eagles would have won. Anyway, congrats on a great run from a Giants fan. I know you all are disappointed now, but considering where the Eagles were 2 months ago, it was pretty amazing that they even made it this far, and you got to enjoy some great football along the way.

by cjmulrain on Jan 19, 2009 2:55 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

It was hard to see all the RED! And whats with closing the dome…..just to make all the transplants and old folks louder…wtf? Better record = home field..there I feel much better

by KellyGreen4Ever on Jan 19, 2009 2:50 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

yeah but here's the thing

i agree with you about the game being different if it was in philly… and thats exactly why as awesome as that run was, we just cannot go 9-6-1 and then expect the Birds to magically run the whole way through the playoffs on the road.

We were making the same comments after the saints loss in 06.

That’s why we just cannot lay eggs like we did this season.

I havent really broken it down, but if we win the bengals game, the first redskins game, the bears game we go 12-4 and win the division

E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES

by 700 Level on Jan 19, 2009 8:11 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

If we just don’t allow the Cowboys 41 points and the Giants 36 points, we win the division at 11-4-1 (Panthers become #1 seed, Giants #5 or #6). We then pull the Giants or Vikings at home in the divisionals, then host the Cardinals in the NFC Championship.

We were leading in both those games, weren’t we?

You can’t lose games where you score 31 and 37 points.

by Andrew B on Jan 20, 2009 8:16 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs